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9 December 2016

Here's how it works: The Recent Releases chart brings together critical reaction to new albums from more than 50 sources worldwide. It's updated daily. Albums qualify with 5 reviews, and drop out after 6 weeks into the longer timespan charts.

8.8 |
Pitchfork

8.5 |
Prefix

Past albums might have romanticized drugs and booze as the way out, but here it's music, and the album feels more healing as a result
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8.539775

8.5 |
Beats Per Minute

Every song possesses a chorus that you instantly have a primal urge to sing along to
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8.340227

8.3 |
A.V. Club

As Sweet Heart demonstrates clearly, with the right combination of chemicals, faith, and affection, it’s possible to achieve an imitation of the afterlife from right here on earth
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8.040211

8.0 |
music OMH

Sweet Heart Sweet Light has all that could be expected of it. There are gospel choirs. Guitars fuzz and spit, and feedback spikes from every corner. There are mentions of God and Jesus and fire. The touchstones that should be touched are wholeheartedly grasped
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8.040452

8.0 |
No Ripcord

Flipping through every Spiritualized record is very much like wearing a mood ring - they all feature the same over-arching theme, yet each reveal a different emotional state
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7.0 |
Rolling Stone

6.3 |
The AU Review

Space-rock is a curt way to express what is really psychedelic Brit-pop with a less dour Manchunian attitude with lots of space despite a particularly full sound
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6.049000

6.0 |
All Music

Revisits indulgences like orchestral flourishes and gospel choirs (and throws in a children's choir for good measure)
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6.039852

6.0 |
Slant Magazine

Unlike in the past, when Pierce stirred the pot and made something new, the album doesn't cohere in the way the best Spiritualized albums have
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6.040022

6.0 |
Drowned In Sound

Crucially (and I can’t state enough how crucial this point is), this record is missing the really pathetic low point that makes you cry your eyes dry
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6.039780

6.0 |
Q

A pleasure but not quite a thrill. Print edition only

6.039774

6.0 |
The Skinny

Many of Jason Pierce’s talents are apparent on this album. Unfortunately, restraint isn’t one of them
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5.040078

5.0 |
The Line Of Best Fit

May be an attempt to return to the Spiritualized of yore, but one listen and you’ll realise that this isn’t the band you remember them being
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4.040149

4.0 |
The Observer

There's a lot of old rope here, let down further by Pierce's singing. Vocals have never really been the point of Spiritualized. But here, pushed way up in the mix, Pierce's words lose the mystique his intonations used to pack
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2.040219

2.0 |
The Quietus

Where previous lyrical excesses have often been tempered by a genius for tension building arrangement, the overriding vibe on Sweet Heart Sweet Light is that of bloated self-parody, and gratuitous self-pity
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